An ambitious young photographer captured the chaos and beauty of Greyhound buses in 1943

A Greyhound bus from Washington, D.C. to Pittsburgh.

Image: Library of Congress

In 1942, Esther Bubley, a fresh graduate of the photography program at the Minneapolis School of Art, landed a job as a darkroom assistant at the Office of War Information (OWI) in Washington, D.C.

The OWI had recently absorbed the famed photographic unit of the Farm Security Administration and shifted the photographers’ assignments from rural poverty to various facets of the war effort, including aircraft factories and broader aspects of American infrastructure such as railroads.

Bubley’s talents were quickly recognized by the photographers and program director Roy Stryker, who transferred her out of the darkroom and into the field. Read more…